The blog of the 'There is a Better Way' campaign by STUC staff about policy issues that are, or should be, in the news and guest contributors on issues of social justice. Written from a STUC perspective, contributions will often cover areas where there is yet no settled STUC policy and go into areas in more detail than our formal decisions. We welcome debate and we don’t expect everyone to agree with us, but we will remove any comments that are offensive, irrelevant or otherwise annoy.

The STUC has, for some years now taken the view that Israel should be subject to an international campaign of Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS).

As we say in the introduction to our BDS campaign pack, it was a decision not taken lightly. Over a period of two years, STUC considered the issues; consulted with Palestinian trade unionists; listened to the views of the Israeli trade unions; and in 2009, organised a major fact finding mission to Israel/Palestine where the delegation spoke with dozens of peace and solidarity organisations.

In 2009 we said:

“60 years of United Nations resolutions have not resulted in any progress for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories in Gaza and the West Bank – including occupied east Jerusalem. Israel’s continuing policy of building settlements in Palestinian territory is a violation of international law. These settlements are rightly classed by the United Nations as areas of military occupation. Over twenty thousand Palestinian homes have been destroyed by Israel since 1967 and a segregated road system is used in the West Bank to carve it into Bantustans limiting free movement, free association and economic activity.

Israel’s eighteen-foot concrete and barbed wire barrier “security fence” which is based on the expropriation of Palestinian land and the physical separation of communities has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice and the UN. It deserves its increasingly common description as the “apartheid wall.”

The current situation

There has been no improvement since 2009 in the situation in Israel/Palestine and for many thousands not least those who have been killed, been injured or been dispossessed the situation is worse.

The STUC joined the international community in condemning the horrific kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli teenagers which is one of central the reasons cited for the current Israeli violence in Gaza. It is far from clear that the claims made by the Israeli Government that the killings are linked to Hamas is true and even if it were true, there can be no justification for the scale and nature of the current Israeli attack on the people of Gaza. Equally, STUC has condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel, but neither does this justify the scale and nature of the so-called response.

Whatever actions we in the West might desire of the Government in Gaza and of the Palestinian Authority, it is inconceivable that peace can be built while the current injustices in Israel/Palestine continue. The viability of an independent Palestinian state has been ceaselessly undermined by successive Israeli Governments and it is in the power of Israel and no other party to begin to right the wrongs of generations, starting with the dismantling of illegal settlements and sitting down to negotiating a just peace based upon United Nations Resolutions and international law.

We desperately need a ceasefire, but a ceasefire can only be temporary until fundamental injustices are addressed.

There are many examples of national oppression across the world whether within or between states. STUC condemns all such incidences and actively campaigns against many of these injustices.

It is sometime, therefore asked of us, why Israel/Palestine continues to be a priority and why it is Israel rather than other countries upon whom we argue that BDS should be applied.

There are a number of reasons.

1) The United Kingdom has a particular historical responsibility in the area. As the former colonial power; the author of the Balfour Declaration and the party to the 1948 partition, it must play a positive role in fostering peace.

2) The UK does not play this role. It continues to have a military relationship with the Israeli state and fails to argue in a consistent manner for the upholding of international law. Whilst we might have certain tactical and policy differences with the UK Government over its stance on China, or Iran, Zimbabwe, Syria or other countries where human rights abuses are common, we are generally both on the same side in condemning repression.

3) Because the UK and many in the international community do not take effective action to force Israel to contemplate a just peace, the situation in Israel/Palestine becomes ‘normalised’. Settlements which are illegal under international law are just described as settlements, the ‘separation wall’ is described as a ‘security wall’ etc. As the situation becomes normalised and people begin to accept that ‘that’s just the way things are over there’ the prospects of justice and peace diminish.

4) However distant a prospect achieving peace and justice might be. A just peace in Israel/Palestine could be the catalyst for achieving wider peace in the region and across the world.

5) As a democracy, at least for the majority of Israeli citizens, and in its desire to normalise the situation in Israel/Palestine, the Israeli state can be pressured through a targeted BDS campaign and the efforts of the international community to return to the negotiating table in pursuit of a lasting peace, but only if the pressure increases. This pressure must be political, economic and cultural. It must, as priority, begin with the cessation of the sale of all military equipment to Israel.

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Today’s the day. The opening ceremony is in just a few hours
and Glasgow is buzzing and melting! What a great combination. To top it all off
here are some pictures of rainbow flags to brighten up your day.

The STUC is pleased that the response to our campaign to fly
the rainbow flag has been so successful. Trade Union buildings across Glasgow
and all over Scotland will be flying the flag.

The Rainbow Flag on the STUC building

A number of Councils have also joined us including Dumfries
and Galloway, East Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian. Glasgow City
Council, as host city, is required to work within strict protocols around the
flying of flags during the Commonwealth Games. It did, however, fly the rainbow flag from the City Chambers on 11 July as a symbol of solidarity with the LGBT
community in Glasgow and across the Commonwealth.

The STUC was also pleased that the Scottish
Government agreed to join our campaign and fly the rainbow flag on St Andrew’s House for the duration
of the Games. This is the first time that the rainbow flag has officially flown
on a Scottish Government building.

The Rainbow Flag on St Andrew's House

By flying the rainbow flag during the Games we aim to show solidarity with LGBT people all over the Commonwealth. Currently 42 out
of 53 Commonwealth countries criminalise homosexuality resulting in LGBT people
being subject to harassment, degrading treatment and even imprisonment or death.
This is simply unacceptable and it is right that we should use our Commonwealth
Games to raise awareness and promote a more positive vision of the future.

Join our campaign by posting pictures during the
Commonwealth Games using the hashtag #gamespride

If your employer stops making these payments during periods of annual leave then you will have a claim. Due to a recent change in the law, it is unlawful for your employer to pay you basic pay when you are on holiday. If your employer has not been paying you in the correct way, you can ask the Employment Tribunal to order your employer to pay you the difference between what you have been paid and what you should have been paid. You may be entitled to claim for any underpayments going back to 1998.

It doesn’t matter what job you do. You might be working in a call centre and receiving commission for any sales you make. You might be working in a care home and receiving an allowance for when you work at night or at weekends. It doesn’t matter who your employer is- do not assume that because you work for a big employer with an HR department that they have been paying you in the right way- the chances are, they have not.

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

To celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and Action for Southern Africa Scotland (ACTSA) are asking people to donate children’s books to be sent to school libraries in Nelson Mandela’s home Province of Eastern Cape, with which Scotland has a particular link.Trade Unions are opening up their offices across Scotland to the general public on Friday 18th July as collection points for the book appeal. What are needed are children’s books, in English, to encourage reading for fun. Story books or factual books for all ages from pre-school to teenagers are welcome.

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Below is a guest blog from the Kaleidoscope Trust. The Kaleidoscope Trust is a UK based charity working to uphold the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people internationally.

The Commonwealth Games is one of the
world’s largest and greatest sporting events, bringing together athletes from every
corner of the world. From Africa to Asia, the Paciﬁc to the Caribbean, the
Commonwealth’s 2 billion people make up 30% of the world’s population and are
of many faiths, races, languages, cultures and traditions. The Games themselves
are an amazing celebration of the diversity of the Commonwealth – an
organisation that refers to itself as a family, held together by the shared
values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

In that light it is shocking that of the 53 member nations of the
Commonwealth family, 42 continue to criminalise consensual same-sex
activities between adults. More than ninety
per cent of Commonwealth citizens live in a country that criminalises
homosexuality. Over half the countries in the world that have laws banning homosexuality
are in the Commonwealth. Across the Commonwealth lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans
and intersex (LGBTI) people are denied equal access to rights, education,
employment, housing and healthcare.

Sadly, despite the fact that there are
LGBTI people and organisations in every Commonwealth country, our existence is
often denied, our rights are violated and we are treated as a foreign and alien
import. The voices of LGBTI people continue to be ignored in many Commonwealth
spaces – political, diplomatic, sporting and otherwise. Commonwealth leaders
regularly deny that LGBTI people exist in their countries, or where they do
accept our existence they paint us as immoral, disordered.

Countering this myth is what underlies a
lot of the work that the Kaleidoscope
Trust does. For true equality to
exist across the Commonwealth, attitudes toward LGBTI people need to be changed
wherever we face social and legal discrimination. In the battle for public
opinion visibility is our most powerful tool. When we are visible it becomes
much harder for the opponents of equality to deny our existence. When we are
seen as what we are – sons and daughters, siblings and parents, workers and bosses,
friends and neighbours – it becomes much harder to paint us as immoral,
threatening and foreign.

That’s why we’ve been working with the Equality Network and Pride Glasgow to ensure that when the
Commonwealth Games is celebrating its amazing diversity, LGBTI people are not
forgotten. We are working with LGBTI people from all over the Commonwealth to
make sure our voices are heard – at the LGBTI Human Rights Conference,
the Pride House, Glasgow Pride and other events. Through
raising our voices together we can counter the narrative that being gay, or
lesbian, or bisexual or trans, or intersex is a European or an American
peculiarity. Through raising awareness of the amazing work that is going on
around the Commonwealth to resist invidious laws and discriminatory attitudes
we can truly celebrate the diversity of LGBTI struggle, successes and lives.
LGBT people are part of the incredible diversity of the Commonwealth family and
we are committed to its values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

That’s also why the Kaleidoscope Trust is
delighted to support the STUC’s call for
unions, employers and the public sector to show their support for LGBTI rights
in the Commonwealth by flying the rainbow flag during the Games. If visibility
is our strongest weapon, the more rainbow flags, proudly flown from buildings
across Glasgow and Scotland, the more visible we are. The rainbow flag is a
vital tool in showing our solidarity with LGBTI communities across the
Commonwealth and showing that LGBTI people are a part of the Commonwealth
family.

￼For the time being, the voices of LGBTI
people may be ignored by many of the governments and institutions of the
Commonwealth, but we are not going away. Governments must heed us, must meet
with us and must embrace us as full and equal members of society. Anything less
will fatally tarnish the Commonwealth, render the Games’ fine commitment to
inclusion for all meaningless, and call into question the apparently shared
values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

It might be somewhat geeky but in the course of organising
the STUC’s campaign around flying the rainbow flag, (for more info on this read
my last blog) I discovered a quirk in the law.

In the run up to the Commonwealth Games the Scottish
Government passed some legislation restricting advertising in and around Games
venues while the Games are being held. This legislation is for the most part
reasonable and designed to prevent advertisers taking advantage of
the Games and, in particular, aims to prevent ambush marketing, where companies
try to associate themselves with an event and profit from it without going to
the expense of actually sponsoring it.

This legislation therefore restricts displays (including flags)
in specifically determined Games zones, in an effort to keep any unauthorised
profiteering to a minimum.

Within the legislation, quite rightly, there is a specific
exemption for protest which means that the STUC, Trade Unions and others can
fly the rainbow flag, even within restricted Games zones, without falling foul
of the legislation. We are after all not aiming to profit from the Games, we
are simply raising awareness of the fact that a group of people are routinely
and systematically denied their Human Rights all across the Commonwealth – with
42 out of 53 Commonwealth countries criminalising homosexuality. The legislation recognises our right to have a
demonstration and to promote a campaign and therefore we can fly the rainbow
flag as a symbol of protest and solidarity.

So far so reasonable but then we get to Pride House.

When organising a rainbow flag flying campaign you very
quickly run up against the question: ‘where do I get a six foot rainbow flag
from anyway?’ To answer this, I turned
to Leap Sport Scotland, the organisers of Pride House, naturally expecting
Pride House to be adorned with giant rainbows advertising its existence to all the
world. I was surprised to learn, however, that they had received instruction
that no rainbow flags were to be flown on the building as it is within a
restricted Games area.

Um...what?

Well you see it all comes down to the wording of the
exemption around demonstrations. While protest is allowed to publicise a
campaign, the exemption does not apply to activity that promotes a good or
service.

Pride House is a venue that
welcomes LGBT athletes, fans, and their supporters during international
sporting events. Akin to the various national houses, it is a welcoming place to enjoy the event, to learn about LGBT sport and homophobia in sport, and to
build relations. In this respect Pride House could be described as offering a
‘service’ to LGBT people during the games, and advertising a ‘service’ is not
allowed.

So here we are in the strange
situation where Trade Unions and others will be flying the flag for LGBT rights
during the games but Pride House is prevented from doing the same.

This to me seems odd and out
of step with the ultimate desire of the legislation – to restrict companies
from profiteering and prevent ambush marketing. Given that Pride House is
designed to support LGBT athletes and visitors during the Games, it seems a
shame that it cannot identify itself with the internally recognised
symbol of LGBT equality (after all I am sure Scotland House will fly the
saltire).

The STUC, for one, hopes that
this decision will be reconsidered before the start of the Games as making LGBT
people visible within sport and within the Commonwealth more generally is a key
aim of our campaign and also seems to be a key part of running a Pride House in
the first place.

About Me

The STUC is Scotland's Trade Union centre.
Our purpose is to co-ordinate, develop and articulate the views and policies of the trade union movement in Scotland and, through the creation of real social partnership, to promote: trade unionism; equality and social justice; the creation and maintenance of high quality jobs; and the public sector delivery of services.
The STUC represents over 596,000 trade unionists, the members of 37 affiliated trade unions and 22 Trades Union Councils. We speak for trade union members in and out of work, in the community and in the workplace, in all occupational sectors and across Scotland. Our representative structures ensure that we can speak with authority for the interests of women workers, black workers, young workers and other groups of trade unionists that otherwise suffer discrimination in the workplace and in society.